Because nothing seems to go right for us, well, ever, we had another issue with Sleipnir, another tow, and more things going wrong. We really are starting to run out of things to repair or replace, so I hope that soon this is the end of our problems, but I’m always wary of something breaking, something not working right, or something horrible happening. It always seems to happen at the worst of times as well. This is the story of what went wrong this time.
We left from a Cracker Barrel Saturday morning and everything seemed okay. We knew there was rain ahead and we’d have to pull over since I hate driving in the rain in the RV. We got south about an hour and, sure enough, we hit rain. We pulled over into a gas station to wait it out. I went inside and talked to the clerk, asking him if there was a Walmart or grocery store with a bigger parking lot we could go to, but he said it was fine if we just backed up to where the garbage dumpsters were and we’d be out of the way and not blocking any pumps. We sat there for about an hour and a half, waiting for the rain to go away.
It eventually calmed down, so we headed south again. Then we got to Birmingham and hit traffic. It was basically not moving or moving extremely slowly. It took us nearly an hour to go three miles. Then that finally ended and we were traveling again. Then we get to Montgomery, and the same thing happened, stop and go traffic for another hour.
We stopped in Montgomery for gas, I checked the oil level and it was fine. Our trip that should have gotten us to our destination in Florida by 4 was now looking to be 8. We left Montgomery and headed south, this time taking a side highway since the main one turned west and we needed to go straight south.
Eventually we got to Marianna, FL. We stopped to get gas, which was a pain by itself since the gas station was so small and on a corner of an intersection. Finally able to leave, we went to a Firehouse Subs to get some food since we wouldn’t be getting to Florida any time soon.
After leaving Firehouse, we got onto I-10 and headed east. The engine didn’t feel right. It was like something was limiting it from getting full power. It was misfiring bad again, but that eventually slowed down and went back to normal. I still didn’t feel confident that all was well though. I had one more gas fill up to do, so we stopped in Lake City to get gas and then have about 100 miles to our destination.
This is where everything fell apart.
We got gas and filled up, went back to the RV to leave, and it wouldn’t start. The key turned, the lights had full power, but there was no sound at all. No clicking, no trying to turn over, nothing. I asked someone else at the gas station if they could jump us. We tried it and still nothing. It had to be something with the starter because the battery was fine.
We called AAA to get a tow to our campground so we could figure out things after we were there. Called them around 9pm. At 10pm, they called and said a truck was on its way and would be there within an hour. Forty-five minutes later, I hadn’t heard anything and wanted to know when the truck was going to be there, so I called them back and asked them to get ahold of the driver to find our where he was. They couldn’t get ahold of anyone at the tow company. Not the driver, not dispatch, no one. They said they’d find someone else and maybe the first driver would still be arriving soon.
He never did show up.
Tiffany was feeling unsafe with the parking lot lights off as the gas station was closed and people kept walking through looking suspicious. I called the local non-emergency number and a deputy came out and spoke to us. He told he couldn’t sit there until the driver came because they had too much going on, but they’d drive by frequently and keep an eye on us. Talking to him made Tiffany feel better, so we went back inside.
Tiffany found a 24-hour tow company and said we should just get a tow and send the bill to AAA and get reimbursed. I called the first one. The phone rang a dozen times and then just disconnected. I called the second one on the list who said they couldn’t tow a vehicle our size, but gave me the info for one that could. I called them, and the owner answered. We told him what was going on, he said they could have someone to us within about 30 minutes. I said that was great and I’d let AAA know. He also told me it was weird AAA hadn’t called him because usually when they can’t find someone to tow a vehicle, they end up calling him.
AAA called back, apologized a lot and said they were trying to get someone out to us. I interrupted her and told her we found someone that said they work with AAA sometimes. She said that was great and said she would call the company and handle the payment so we wouldn’t have to worry about reimbursement since we had been sitting there for so long already.
The driver arrived around 2am and started working on hooking up our RV. It took him awhile since he was alone and its a pain in the ass to do. But he got us on the road and we headed to our campground finally. He was tired because it was the middle of the night, but he was still great to deal with and listened to us bitch without getting annoyed.
We finally got to the campground at 5am. Got unhooked, set everything up, thanked the driver profusely, and went inside. We were planning on staying up until Tiffany’s family arrived, but we ended up dozing off for a few hours anyway. They arrived around noon, took us to Olive Garden (where we had a great server) and then to Walmart. We had to restock some supplies since our fridge had not stayed cold the whole time, but we got enough food to last us for awhile.
We ended up getting Dominos for the first time in nearly six months, fell asleep early, and woke up the next day hoping to get things done. The RV is a mess, we need to clean up, get rid of some stuff, organize things, do laundry, clean up, all that good stuff.
I did call around to find places to fix the windshield and starter and found a place that said they can do it. We are planning on going there on Thursday to get that done. We also have an oil leak that needs to be dealt with, so I hope they can fix that as well or at least tell us if its severe.
Other than that, we have about three weeks to relax. Having some friends and family come visit us, but that’s about it. Hopefully this is the end of our troubles for awhile because I’m really not ready for more issues and I don’t know what else can go wrong in this thing.
